Woman pleads guilty in murder of Delco landscaper in Chesco

By MICHAEL P. RELLAHAN

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

WEST CHESTER - Andre Dupuis has been dead more than nine months, but the collateral damage his demise caused to those left behind was still painfully fresh Wednesday in Common Pleas Court, as one of those who orchestrated his murder plead guilty to the crime.

Melanie Ray, 26, of Titusville, who with a boyfriend targeted Dupuis, who lived in Aston, for murder in order to steal his pickup truck and flee the state, entered a plea of guilty to the charge of second-degree murder, also known as felony murder. Her sentence is a mandatory life term in state prison without the possibility of parole.

"I don't know how you could do this, and ruin so many lives, including your own," the victim's mother, Joan Dupuis, said to Ray in a statement read to the court after Ray entered her plea. "I hope you feel the torment I feel every day. I wish my son had never laid eyes on you and became your premeditated trap."

"I have a new understanding of the definition of hate, said Dupuis' sister, Stephanie Wood, who had met Ray a few days before her brother's death, in her statement. "It is my desire to have you understand the pain and hurt that you have caused me."

Ray, along with her friend Chandler Clark, had chosen Dupuis, a 32-year-old landscaper from Aston, as their mark because he was single and had no children, making them believe it would take longer for him to be reported as missing. Ray had met Dupuis at a Rising Sun, Md., bar three weeks earlier and become friendly.

On Aug. 6, the pair drove with Dupuis along a desolate stretch of road in southern Chester County in his pickup. They stopped when Ray feigned sickness. Confronting Dupuis with a handgun, Clark fired two shots, one in his back and another in his neck, killing him almost instantly. His body was discovered in a ravine the next day by a passing motorist.

Clark and Ray, who planned the murder, robbery, and flight to avoid state prison time for parole violations, were found two days later in Indianapolis, Ind., with Dupuis' pickup. Clark, 20, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and robbery of a motor vehicle in February. He is serving a life sentence plus 10 to 20 years.

In accepting Ray's plea, Judge Anthony Sarcione cautioned her that in accepting the sentence proposed by the prosecution she was ending virtually all hope that she would ever see freedom again. In Pennsylvania, a life sentence means just that, he explained.

"You understand that the possibility of you getting out of prison alive is very unlikely," Sarcione said. "It probably won't happen."

"Yes, your honor," Ray said.

Afterwards, the lead prosecutor in the case, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Ost-Prisco, praised the work of police involved in the case. He said he believed that Clark and Ray might have put others in danger as they made their way to Arizona, where they believed they could avoid capture.

"They still had a loaded gun with them when they were apprehended," Ost-Priso said. "I am convinced that if not for the fast work of state police and Indianapolis police, they could have killed someone else in their trek across the United States. As tragic as this case was, it could have been worse."

The plea hearing took about 90 minutes, as Sarcione went through a detailed and full explanation of the charges against Ray and the rights she was giving up by pleading guilty. It came on a day when Sarcione was scheduled to hear a pre-trial motion filed by Ray's attorney seeking to have a statement she gave police admitting her role in Dupuis death suppressed. Her trial was to have started in July.

West Chester attorney Alex Silow, representing Ray, told Sarcione that she was entering the guilty plea against his advice. The life sentence she was offered, he noted, was about the worst sentence she would have received if she had gone to trial.

"It was her choice to plead guilty," Silow said after the hearing. "I had to respect her request. The upside is that she did not put the family through a trial."

Ray, a high school graduate with a criminal record involving drug sales, told Sarcione that she understood what she was doing in entering the plea, and was in sound mental health besides having been diagnosed as a teenager with bipolar disorder and oppositional-defiant disorders.

Dressed in a salmon blouse and black pants with her auburn hair piled atop her head, Ray answered Sarcione's questions with yes and no answers, but made no comment on why she had decided to plead guilty, and made no statement of remorse in the case.

"But it is your decision to plead guilty and get this behind you," Sarcione asked. "No one is threatening or coercing you, is that correct?" "Yes, your honor, Ray replied.

As many as two dozen of Dupuis' family members and friends packed the courtroom benches Wednesday, as they have at virtually every hearing in the case, including the pair's preliminary hearing last August and Clark's plea in February. Six of them read statements to Sarcione.

Those statements mixed a description of Dupuis' personality - as generous and kind as could be, and a favorite of many family members, including his 89-year-old grandmother, with whom he lived - with angry venom directed at Ray for having set him up for murder.

"My brother was kind hearted. He was fun loving," said Michael Dupuis, reading from a yellow legal pad. "He would give you his last dollar."

"He loved making others happy," said his aunt, Nancy Dupuis, who lived next door to him and who remembered small tokens of his affection such as plants for her garden and ice cream treats from the local Dairy Queen.

Those who spoke also pointed out the fallacy in Ray and Clark's belief that he would not be immediately missed because of his lack of a wife or children. "He was missed, and he still is missed," said co-worker Jim Stinley of Wilmington, Del.

Speaking to Ray although keeping her eyes on Sarcione, Nancy Dupuis noted with dismay the fact that her nephew was killed because "you just needed a ride.

"I cannot comprehend how anyone could plan to take a life, especially of someone they know," she said. "How did you think that Andre would not be missed?"

Ray, who has been held at the Chester County Prison since her return from Indiana last August, was led from the courtroom in handcuffs and shackles. She will be housed at one of two state correctional facilities that handle women prisoners. Sarcione also noted that her murder conviction would constitute a violation of her state parole, the reason underlying the motive for Dupuis' murder.